When Dan Nanigian took over his father’s company — Nanmac Corp. — in 2003, he knew that growth of the business had plateaued.

The Framingham, Mass., firm’s high-performance temperature sensors are used in the manufacturing of solar, aerospace, defense and plastics products, but manufacturing in the U.S. has been on the decline for years. Thus, business had slowed at Nanmac.

So Nanigian decided to sell his temperature sensors where manufacturing was booming: overseas. Specifically: China.

“It wasn’t really complicated ... it was a matter of stealing market share in the U.S. or finding new customers,” said Nanigian, 51.

To navigate the complicated business of exporting products to Asia, Nanigian turned to the Massachusetts Export Center, which is affiliated with the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center Network, which in turn is partially funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Such centers offer help for small to midsized companies that want to explore exporting.

Nanigian wanted to learn everything about the business of exporting. He made his first trip to Shanghai in 2004.

“He developed his own expertise and dedicated himself to international growth,” said Julia Dvorko, a regional director of the export center. “We provide a lot of assistance to a wide range of companies, but we also have companies that we work with but they never get there. Dan took what we gave him and ran with it.”

Nanmac’s four-person office in Shanghai has fueled double-digit revenue growth during the past few years.

The firm grew to $10 million in revenue in 2010, up from $5.1 million in 2009 and $2.7 million in 2008. Sales in China account for about 25 percent of revenue, and Nanigian expects that figure to grow. Nanmac’s clients include NASA, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national laboratories.

Nanmac’s prowess in exports has not gone unnoticed.

In 2010, Nanmac nabbed the SBA Small National Exporter of the Year award, a prize that recognizes a company's ability to use exporting to boost sales, as well as to market creatively overseas and deal with the myriad challenges of exporting effectively.

Beyond the thrill of traveling to Washington to accept the award (“I was lucky enough to shake the hand of the president,”), Nanigian also says that the accolades have helped fuel his desire to continue to grow sales.

Winning the award “has kept the pressure on. It’s made me feel like I can’t just sit back and relax,” said Nanigian, who travels to Shanghai several times a year.

Exporting to China did not come without its challenges, including understanding the sales culture in Shanghai and dealing with naysayers who told Nanigian he could never sell in Asia.

Nanigian’s exporting success highlights the changes that companies that cater to the manufacturing industry have had to make. For years, Nanmac survived just fine selling to only U.S. firms.

Nanmac was founded by a group of scientists that included Nanigian’s father. It was initially based in Maryland, and its bread-and-butter clients were military research facilities.

In the early 1960s, Nanmac relocated to Framingham after its founders realized they couldn’t survive by catering only to the military.

The company expanded its target industries, making temperature sensors for a range of manufacturing processes, including molding plastic cups, heat treating drill bits and making re-entry heat shields for rockets.

The company's sensors have also been used to measure lava-flow temperatures of volcanoes (2,200 degrees) and sea turtle incubation temperatures (the temperature of the water determines the sex of the turtles).

In 2003, Nanigian purchased the company from his father and other shareholders. It had 12 employees at that time.

Since launching efforts overseas, Nanigian has nearly tripled employees to 32 staffers plus four people in Shanghai.

In addition to his exporting efforts, Nanigian, who has a marketing background, has also made a point of marketing his products aggressively in trade publications such as Industrial Heating. He’s a fan of trying out unconventional techniques: For instance, one print ad pictures a grinning chef in a kitchen — but instead of food ingredients, he’s holding Nanmac sensors.

The ad copy reads, “The finest ingredients produce the best results.”

“He’s probably one of the most creative, aggressive” marketers, said Larry Pullman, regional manager of Industrial Heating and Forge magazines, who met Nanigian when he advertised in the publications.

“He’s willing to try something new. He loves to hear about new innovative things that we might come up with in the publishing world ... he’s just very aggressive with what he does,” said Pullman.

While Nanigian expects revenue from China to continue to grow, he also plans to expand his exporting efforts to other areas, including Russia and Hungary.

Nanigian says that one reason he’s been able to accomplish so much is that he keeps a list of goals and shares them with friends, family and co-workers. For instance, seven years ago, Nanigian made a plan to grow revenue, hire more employees and gain national recognition for his efforts.

“I’m a firm believer in what I call visualizing the dream, then boiling it down to a plan and then sharing that plan with people so they hold you to it,” said Nanigian.

Q&A

With Dan Nanigian

Biggest risk taken:

Committing 30 percent of revenue to marketing, advertising and the selling effort.

Guiding principle:

Sell it first, then figure out how to make it. Build it right, get paid.

Biggest challenge:

Maximizing all available technology, from internal reporting, to a semi-automated welding machine.

Next goal:

Create another 20 jobs, and make sure the company can succeed without me.